Where Do I Get Status Information On A Trademark Application or Registration?

Trademark Status and Document Retrieval TSDR

TSDR has replaced TARR at USPTO.gov

(TSDR is at http://tsdr.uspto.gov/)

Document Viewing and Downloading: Note that an electronic copy of any of any TSDR documents is available online by selecting the name of the document in the list on the TSDR at http://tsdr.uspto.gov for the applicable serial number or registration number of a mark. Any of these documents can be downloaded by ticking the box on the left of the TSDR records and selecting the Download PDF button at the bottom.

Why is TSDR important? To check the status of a trademark application or registration and to have a LIVE link to applications: A trademark application or registration status can be checked at the USPTO’s TSDR (Trademark Status and Document  Retrieval system) at http://tsdr.uspto.gov/. Trademark applicants and registrants should monitor the status of their applications during the pendency of an application (at least every six months is recommended) and after filing an affidavit of use or excusable nonuse under §8 or a renewal application under §9 of the Trademark Act. An applicant or registrant has a duty to monitor status just in case something goes wrong or needs attention and notice was not received. (Emails or postal addresses get changed, notices get put in spam folders, etc.) The USPTO may deny petitions to reactivate abandoned applications and cancelled registrations when a party fails to inquire about the status of a pending matter within a reasonable time. A registrant should monitor the status because the registration date is used to determine when post-registration maintenance documents such as Sec. 8 and affidavits of use & Sec. 9 renewals are due. FAILURE TO FILE THE REQUIRED DOCUMENTS WILL RESULT IN CANCELLATION OF THE REGISTRATION. Note that TESS links break very soon after viewing but TSDR links stay LIVE and can be saved and pasted into charts and communications.

Frequently Asked Questions about TSDR

What does ‘Approved For Pub - Principal Register’ mean? This means the final review prior to publication has been completed, application will be published for opposition.

What does  ‘Registered - Principal Register’ mean? This means the trademark has registered with the USPTO and a certificate will be mailed to the correspondent on record.

How can I print a clean copy of the information displayed on the TSDR Status page?

Click download, click download, (PDF is default), Click Open (to open a pdf file that you can print), Click Print.

To save the file instead of printing, Click download, click download, (PDF is default), Click Save File and select a folder to save the file in.

What does ‘Allowed for Registration - Principal Register (SOU accepted)’ mean? This means the Statement of Use has been approved for an Intent to Use application that has already been through its Opposition Period with no opposition and the trademark should register in 4-6 weeks.

What does ‘Notice of publication’ mean? This means the final review prior to publication has been completed and the application will be published for opposition (but this is not the publication date).

What does ‘SU - Non-Final Action - Mailed’ mean? This means that the Statement of Use was refused, typically a specimen refusal. Registration is refused because the specimen does not show the applied-for mark in use in commerce in connection with any of the goods and/or services specified in the statement of use.  This is a refusal under Trademark Act Sections 1 and 45. See https://stepstoatrademark.com/specimenselectionreview.html for more information.

What does ‘Published for opposition’ mean? Under U.S. Trademark law, 15 U.S.C. §1062(a), a trademark or service mark must be published for opposition before it can be registered on the Principal Register. This Publication and [short] time period (30 days) give someone who may be harmed by a registration of a federal trademark a way to oppose (or object to) the registration. Not just anyone can object/oppose, only any person or entity who believes that he/she/it would be damaged by the registration of the mark and can prove both Standing  and Grounds.

What does  ‘New Application Entered In Tram’  or ‘new application office supplied data entered in tram’ mean? This document step, ‘new application office supplied data entered in tram’, means that the USPTO has accepted the new application for initial processing and has put it into TRAM, the USPTO database. What is TRAM? The Trademark Reporting and Monitoring (“TRAM”) System. For applications filed through TEAS, the data provided by the applicant is loaded directly into the USPTO’s automated TRAM System. TRAM is used by USPTO employees to obtain information about the location and status, prosecution history, ownership, and correspondence address for applications and registrations. The information from TRAM is available to the public through the Trademark Status and Document Retrieval System (“TSDR”) database, available on the USPTO’s website at http://tsdr.uspto.gov.  Note that there is no right to privacy on most trademark information entered by the applicant. Trademark applications are public records.

What does ‘Allowed for Registration - Principal Register (SOU accepted)’ mean? A Statement of Use (SOU) is one form of An Allegation of Use, a sworn statement signed by the applicant or a person authorized to sign on behalf of the applicant attesting to use of the mark in commerce. (Since most trademarks are now filed electronically, this is usually an electronic signature.) With the Allegation of Use, the owner must submit: a filing fee of $100 per class of goods/services; and one specimen. A specimen is a sample of the use of the mark that acts as evidence that the mark has been properly used in commerce for each class of goods/services. Note that the type of sample appropriate for submission is different for a trademark (sales of goods) than it is for a service mark (sales of services). An Amendment to Allege Use (AAU) is another type of Allegation of Use but differs in the time period when it is submitted. See Additional Requirements For Intent to Use Application for more information.  

What is a ‘NOA Mailed - SOU Required From Applicant’?  A written notification from the USPTO that a specific mark has survived the opposition period following publication in the Official Gazette is called a Notice of Allowance (NOA), and has consequently been allowed for registration. It does not mean that the mark has registered yet. Notices of allowance are only issued for applications that have been filed based on "Intent to Use". The Notice of Allowance is important because the issue date of the Notice of Allowance establishes the due date for when an applicant is required to file a Statement of Use (SOU). After receiving the Notice of Allowance, the applicant must file a Statement of Use or a request for an extension of time to file a Statement of Use within 6 months from the issue date of the Notice. If the applicant fails to timely file a Statement of Use or a request for an extension of time to file a Statement of Use, the application will go abandoned. TEAS Statement of Use Received is the status message when the SOU is received by the USPTO.

What does ‘Statement Of Use Processing Complete’ mean? This means that changes have been made to the trademark record to show that the SOU has been received but not yet approved.

What do ‘Non-final Action Written’ and ‘Non-Final Action mailed’ mean? The Non-final action document is usually a refusal to register based on a problem with the application or a problem with the trademark itself. The most common refusals are a LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION (conflicting mark) with a registered or pending trademark. Other common refusals are for MERELY DESCRIPTIVE trademarks or for goods and services identification problems.

What does ‘TEAS Response to Office Action Received’ mean? This means a response has been filed by the applicant or applicant’s representative to a non-final or final action. A response must fully respond to the examiner’s office action in order to be accepted or the application may be issued a final refusal.

What do ‘TEAS Revoke/Appoint Attorney Received’ and ‘Attorney Revoked And/Or Appointed’ mean? This means that an attorney has been changed (not necessarily revoked). The same form is used to appoint or revoke.

What does ‘Notice Of Pseudo Mark Mailed’ mean? The USPTO assign pseudo marks to some new applications to assist in searching the USPTO database for conflicting marks. Pseudo marks have no legal significance and will not appear on the registration certificate. The pseudo-mark entries in the USPTO databases allow likelihood of confusion searches for a particular word or term to automatically retrieve phonetic equivalents or pictorial equivalents that have been appropriately pseudo-marked. A pseudo mark may be assigned to marks that include words, numbers, compound words, symbols, or acronyms that can have alternative spellings or meanings. Pseudo-marks provide an additional search tool for locating marks that contain an intentionally-altered spelling of a normal English word or that contain the literal equivalent to a pictorial representation of the word in a design mark.

What does ‘Notice Of Design Search Code Mailed’ mean? The USPTO may assign design search codes, as appropriate, to new applications and renewed registrations to assist in searching the USPTO database for conflicting marks.  They have no legal significance and will not appear on the registration certificate. DESIGN SEARCH CODES are numerical codes assigned to figurative, non-textual elements found in marks.  For example, if your mark contains the design of a flower, design search code 05.05 would be assigned to your application.  Design search codes are described on Internet Web page http://www.uspto.gov/tmdb/dscm/index.html.

What does ‘Abandonment - Failure To Respond Or Late Response’ and ‘ Abandonment Notice Mailed - Failure To Respond’ mean? This means that the identified trademark was abandoned in full because a response to the Office Action was not received within the 6-month response period.

What does ‘Notification Of Letter Of Suspension E-Mailed’ mean? A suspension letter suspends the action on an application. An application may be suspended for a variety of reasons [if a conflict exists between the applicant’s mark and a mark in an earlier-filed pending application, the USPTO will notify the applicant of the potential conflict and suspend action on the application pending final resolution of the earlier-filed application.]. These include waiting for the disposition of a cited prior pending application to be determined or waiting for an assignment of ownership to be recorded. Applicants do not have to respond to suspension letters.

What does ‘Notice of Publication’ mean? This is a written statement from the USPTO notifying an applicant that its mark will be published in the Official Gazette. If the examining attorney assigned to an application raises no objections to registration, or if the applicant overcomes all objections, the examining attorney will approve the mark for publication. The notice of publication provides the date of publication. Any party who believes it may be damaged by registration of the mark has thirty (30) days from the publication date to file either an opposition to registration or a request to extend the time to oppose. If no opposition is filed or if the opposition is unsuccessful, the application enters the next stage of the registration process. A Certificate of Registration will issue for applications based on use or on a foreign registration under §44, or a Notice of Allowance will issue for intent-to-use applications.

When will my trademark register? This depends on if the application is currently a 1(a) or a 1(b) application and depends on the date when it was published for opposition. A 1(a) trademark application that is not opposed should register about 11 weeks after publication.

What does ‘Examiners Amendment -Written’ mean? An Examiner’s Amendment is a written confirmation of an amendment made to a trademark application. The trademark examining attorney assigned to the application will make the amendment after consultation with an applicant or the applicant’s attorney. The examiner’s amendment is merely a written confirmation of the agreement between the examining attorney and the applicant as to the amendment, and it is also a notice that the amendment will be made. The applicant need not respond to the examiner’s amendment unless the applicant wishes to make further changes to the application.

Only about 30% of TEAS PLUS applications go straight to publication without an office action so don’t be surprised if you are one of the 70% who receive a refusal of some type. Call us at Not Just Patents® Legal Services. We can help.  See Why Not Just Patents? if you have already applied and been refused. See also Why Hire Private Trademark Attorney?